Feeding means.



W. H. OCONNOR.

FEEDING MEANS-;

APPLICATION FILED MAR.23,19I6.

L@@?.,?@?m Patented Dfec. 12, 1916.

. |NVENTOR TO R N EYS TlhlTTED @TATEfi PATENT @JTTTQE.

WILLIAM H. OCONNOR, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

FEEDING MEANS.

Application filed March 23, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. OCoN- NOR, a citizen of the United States, and resident of East Orange, county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feeding Means, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved feeding means that is in a general way similar to a device patented by myself on March 10, 1914, the patent being numbered 1,089,- 431, such feeding means being adapted to be used in many different locations and for feeding different kinds of material, but is particularly adapted for machines like leather splitting machines. In such machines, in order to get a hide split so that at least one of the resultant split portions is the same thickness throughout, it is necessary to use a number of narrow rollers bearing onto a fixed roll, both the narrow rollers and the fixed rolls being positively rotated. The narrow rollers or movable rollers are so mounted that they can retreat when a thickened portion comes in contact with them and can advance when a thinned portion comes in contact with them so that a positive feeding of the hide for its whole width is assured.

The invention further consists in a device of this kind that is so constructed that the movable rollers are mounted so that they can retreat from the fixed roll and at the same time recede from the knife so as to give room between the knife and the movable roller for the excess material to pass through so as not to crowd the material between the knife and the fixed roll, which crowding would result in the thickened part at that point in the hide, due to such crowding or forcing between the fixed roll and the knife. The hide that passes between the fixed roll and the knife should be of uniform thickness, the excess material passmg between the knife and the movable roller, and this receding or backward movement or the movable roller from the knife permits the excess material to pass through from the movable roller, but at the same time maintains sufficient pressure on the hide to assure the positive feeding of the proper amount of hide between the knife and the fixed roll.

When these machines are used in leather Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. T2, 1916.

Serial No. 86,176.

splitting the leather is wet and in a fairly pliable state, but it varies in thickness and is firmer in some places than in others. The leather when being fed between the rollers is severed just as the pressure is being released, that is, the pressure of the rollers is starting to release the hide and the knife must be fixed with a nicety at a point in relation to these rollers in order to get good results. For light cuts the knife is set close to a line passing through the center of the two rollers, and for heavy cuts it is set back farther. It is impractical to automatically adjust the knife for the varying conditions encountered in different parts of the same hide, and as the out between the fixed roll and the knife is to be of uniform thickness, the excess material must pass between the knife and the movable roller.

My invention provides for a movement of the movable rollers which are arranged side by side and opposite the fixed roll so that they do not crowd the material against the knife and insure a uniform thickness on that part of the hide in which such uniform thickness is designed to be present. It has been customary to arrange these movable rollers between walls-so that they are insured of a vertical movement and can retreat from the fixed roll, but in retreating from the fixed roll, and necessarily from the knife, there has been no movement sufficient to allow excess material to have a clear road between the knife and the movable roller which a receding movement of the roller gives. It will be evident that each section of the flexible roller, which consists of these movable rollers, is so mounted as to automatically assume a position for cutting, according to the thickness encountered, at the same time that its neighbor or adjacent rollers may be working under different conditions, and one of the objects of this invention is to provide for such movable rollers an improved mounting so that the rollers are independently employed, can be easily replaced and are positive in their operation.

Another object of this invention is to providesuch a mounting which simplifies the application of the yielding or spring pressure to these rollers so that they are under equal tension, the application of the spring or yielding power also being disposed so that when the tension on one section or narrow roller is increased, a corresponding pressure is applied to all the other rollers.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a section showing part of the feeding means as applied to a leathersplitting machine and illustrating a few parts of by different forms of adjusting means which are not illustrated herein, so that the distance between the knife andthe roller can be varied either in a vertical or a horizontal direction, thus insuring a fixed opening between the knife and the fixed roll, such opening being increased for a certain cut, but, if desired, theopening can be changed so as to 7 make a thinner or a thicker split hide, as

will, be readily understood. The leather is fed along a table 12, this table being arranged so that the material is fed toward the knife 11 between the roll and the rollers 13. The rollers 13 are adapted to be positively driven from the shaft 14, and a number of devices are used for mounting the rollers 13 on the shaft 14, one of such devices being illustrated in my prior patent hereinbefo-re referred to and also illustrated here, such securing or rotating means comprising links 15 which are fastened to one of the elements and secured to the other of said elements by having a slotted connection, as at 16, so that the rollers 13 can be arranged eccentric to the shaft 14. The links are preferably fastened not directly to the shaft but to a sleeve 13 which is keyed, as at 13 to the shaft 14. A yielding means is employed for holding the movable rollers 13 in a normal position to feed the hide to the knife in conjunction with the fixed roll 10, and the mounting and the pressure means described herein are arranged so as to permit a movement ofthe rollers 13 so that they swing away from theknife and away from the fixed roll. The mounting of one roller 13 will be described herein and is illustrated preferred in order to permit the movable roller, when necessary, to be swung downward and backward so that it not only retreats from the fixed roll 10 but recedes from the cutting edge of the knife 11, thus not materially interfering with the feeding of the hide before it gets to the knife, but permitting adequate space between the knife and the movable roller to allow the excess of the thickened part of the hide, causing such retreatingof the movable roller to pass between this roller and the knife and not crowd any material, in its wet and pliable state, between the fixed roll and the knife. Means are provided on the lever for holding the roller so that it can rotate in its different positions, the form shown illustrating a supporting roller 22 which rotates in the bearing 21 and projects up within the recess 18 so as to engage and press upward against the roller 13 to hold it in what might be termed its normal position. An abutment 23 on one side of the recessed part 18 and also a holding piece 24 engage the sides of the roller 13, the holding piece 24 being preferably made adjustable so as to vary the space between it and the abutment. The adjusting means consists of a screw 25 which is in screw-threaded engagement with the lower end of the holding piece 24, the holding piece bearing, as at 26, against the Outer end 27 of the lever 17, and the screw 25 operating through and bearing with its head against a projecting part 29. Suitable stop means can be used to limit the movement of the lever 17 in one direction so that a limit is placed on the movement of the roller 13 toward the fixed roll 10. The stop illustrated in the drawing comprises a screw 31 arranged in the end of the lever 17, such screw abutting against a fixed stop portion 32 on the machine. It will be evident from this description that if a thinned portion of a hide attempts t9 pass through the opening between the roll 10 and the roller 13, the roller 13 is swung on the center 19, retreats from the fixed roll 10, and also recedes or swings back from the line occupied by the cutting edge of the knife and the excess material thus passes between the roller and the knife.

In order to yieldingly hold the rollers 13 upward so that they will engage with material passing underneath the roll 10, springs have been employed, such springs operating only one roller so that the tension on one roller was thereby instantaneously increased while the tension on the other rollers did not receive any portion of said increased tension. In the form shown I have illustrated the lever 17 as supplied with a link 33, and I prefer to make these links so that each link 33 connects two levers 17, the levers so connected by a single link being alternate levers, the levers 17 being illustrated diagrammatically in end view in Fig. 2, and the links 33 are shown as connecting alternate levers. In the drawing is shown one method of connecting 10 i levers which is the average number of rollers used on a leather splitting machine, each of the links 33 in turn being connected to a lever 34, such levers 34 being pivotally at tached as at 35 to levers 36. These levers 36 in turn are pivotally connected as at 37 to levers 38. The levers 38 are connected pivotally, as at 39, to levers 40, the levers 40 being pivoted at ll to the levers 42, the levers 6L2 in turn being connected to a bar 43 to which is fastened the master spring 4% which is fastened, as at 45, to a fixed point which can be, if desired, a part of the machine. The levers are so pivoted and connected to each other so as to equalize and distribute pressure so that if by reason for instance of a thickened piece of hide engaging any one roller 13, it will push it down and correspondingly push up on the end 30 of the lever 17 this end being the end to which the link 38 is attacheda When any one of such levers 17 is forced upward, it pulls on the master spring tt through its series of levers and at the same time this pull is distributed among all the other levers, and the tension that they exert through their rollers on the particular part of the hide opposite each of them is equalized.

It will be evident that, if desired, single pressure means for each lever 17 can be employed, or small groups of levers can be operated on by sets of springs, and other forms than that illustrated can be used for supplying proper force or pressure to the movable rollers 13.

In this specification and claims the roll 10 is called a fixed roll, this term meaning that in the operation of the machine the roll 10 is fixed in comparison with the flexibility of the rollers 13, but it will be evident that the term fixed does not imply that the roll 10 is not capable of adjustment.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a feeding device, a shaft, a roller driven from said shaft and adapted to be moved on said shaft so as to make it either concentric or eccentric in relation to said shaft, a lever having a recessed part to re ceive the roller, the lever being mounted so that it can rock, a supporting roller in said lever on which the first-mentioned roller rests, an abutment and a holding piece for retaining the roller in the lever, means for Copies of this patent may be obtained for adjusting the space between the abutment and the holding piece, and a spring acting against the lever.

2. In a feeding device, a shaft, a roller driven from said shaft and adapted to be moved on said shaft so as to make it either concentric or eccentric in relation to said shaft, a lever having a recessed part to receive the roller, the lever being mounted so that it can rock, a supporting roller in said lever on which the first-mentioned roller rests, an abutment and a holding piece for retaining the roller in the lever, means for adjusting the space between the abutment and the holding piece, a spring acting against the lever, and an adjustable stop to limit the movement of the lever when the lever is actuated by the spring.

8. In a feeding device, a series of independent rollers, a fixed roll with which said rollers are adapted to cooperate to feed material, a yielding pressure-exerting means, and equalizing devices connecting the rollers and the pressure-exerting means so as to equalize the pressure exerted by the rollers.

4. In a feeding device, a series of rollers arranged side by side, levers adapted to rock, each lever supporting a roller, links connecting alternate levers, equalizing levers connecting the links, and a spring connected to said levers.

5. In a feeding device, a shaft, rollers driven from said shaft and adapted to be moved on said shaft so as to make them either concentric or eccentric in relation to said shaft, levers having recessed parts to receive the rollers, the levers being mounted so that they can rock, supporting rollers in said levers on which the first-mentioned rollers rest, an abutment and a holding piece for retaining the rollers in the levers, means for adjusting the space between the abutment and the holding piece, links connecting alternate levers, equalizing levers pivoted to each other and connected to the links so as to distribute power applied to any individual roller among the other rollers, and a spring connected to said equalizing levers to normally force the rollers eccentric to the shaft with which they rotate.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I hereto set my hand, this 15th day of March, 1916.

WILLIAM H. OCONNOR.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

